Lambeth Palace Library and the Church of England Record Centre regularly embark on new projects and acquire and catalogue new material, from rare books and manuscripts to modern publications.  Every two months, we post here a brief update on some of our latest acquisitions, projects and upcoming events, to keep you up-to-date with our most recent news.

Happy Christmas from all the staff at Lambeth Palace Library and the Church of England Record Centre!  

Our Christmas opening times can be viewed here – we reopen after Christmas on Tuesday 2nd January. The online catalogues of both Lambeth Palace Library and the Church of England Record Centre (including our image database) can be searched via our website at any time.

Library Advent Calendar!

Join us on Facebook for the final days of our Library Advent Calendar, as we open a door every morning onto a different Christmas scene from our collections.  Find our Facebook page here or follow the hashtag #LPLAdventCalendar.

This month’s new books!

Some highlights from our most recently acquired new books include:

• Church history: an introduction to research methods and resources, by James E. Bradley & Richard A. Muller (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016). More information and reviews available here.
• Experiences of charity, 1250-1650, edited by Anne M. Scott (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015). More information available here.
• The friaries of medieval London: from foundation to dissolution, by Nick Holder (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2017). More information available here.
• The history of England’s cathedrals, by Nicholas Orme (Exeter: Impress Books, 2017). More information and reviews available here.
• Joan, the fair maid of Kent: a fourteenth-century princess and her world, by Anthony Goodman (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2017). More information and reviews available here.
• Luther on the Christian life: cross and freedom, by Carl R. Trueman (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015). More information and reviews available here.
• Mastering Christianity: missionary Anglicanism and slavery in the Atlantic world, by Travis Glasson (New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, c2012). More information and reviews available here.
• Medieval anchorites in their communities, edited by Cate Gunn and Liz Herbert McAvoy (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2017). More information available here.
• The Oxford history of Anglicanism: vol. V (Global Anglicanism, c.1910-2000), edited by William L. Sachs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). More information available here.
• A parson in wartime: the Boston diary of the Reverend Arthur Hopkins, 1942-1945, edited by Patricia and Robert Malcolmson, with Ann Stephenson (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2017). More information available here.
• Reading the Bible in the Middle Ages, edited by Jinty Nelson and Damien Kempf (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015). More information and reviews available here.
• Thomas Aquinas: a historical and philosophical profile, by Pasquale Porro (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016). More information and reviews available here.
• Witchcraft, the devil, and emotions in early modern England, by Charlotte-Rose Millar (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017). More information and reviews available here.

For more regular updates on new accessions to the library, please follow us on Facebook.

Upcoming events

Dr David Starkey:  ‘Henry VIII and Luther: A Reappraisal’

Tuesday 6 February, 5.15pm (admittance not before 4.45pm)

David Starkey is the author of important books on Henry VIII and the Tudor court and is well known as a regular contributor to both radio and television. In association with the University of London seminar on the Religious History of Britain 1500-1800.  All are welcome, but those wishing to attend should book a free ticket at www.davidstarkeylambeth.eventbrite.co.uk, or email juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org not later than Friday 2 February.

An evening with the Library’s conservators, with an opportunity to view the conservation studio and discuss techniques and treatments with the Library’s conservation staff

Thursday 19 April, 6pm-7.30pm (admittance not before 5.45pm)

Tickets £15 per head (£10 for Friends of Lambeth Palace Library), to include a glass of wine. Numbers will be limited. Please note that the conservation studio is reached by a medieval spiral staircase. Friends and guests are welcome, but please book in advance with Juliette Boyd, Lambeth Palace Library, juliette.boyd@churchofengland.org  or telephone 020 7898 1400, not later than Friday 13 April.

News from the Archives

Newly-catalogued collections include papers of Derrick Sherwin Bailey (1910-84) [MSS 5124-5126], a clergyman who served on the Church of England Moral Welfare Council, dealing with issues of sexual ethics. He gave evidence to the Wolfenden Committee for its report on homosexuality, published in 1957. The material complements existing collections, including records of the Moral Welfare Council at the Church of England Record Centre.

The Library also received the kind gift of an impression of the Vicar General’s seal, belonging to Archbishop Laud, recovered in digging the foundations of London Bridge in 1827, and presented by Viscount Melville to Archbishop Howley in 1830. It was formerly owned by Walter Money, the noted historian, antiquarian and archaeologist.

The Friends of the Library purchased an unpublished treatise dating from c.1660 by an unnamed female writer [MS 5121] and a manuscript of three tracts from George Morley (d. 1684), Bishop of Worcester [MS 5122]. The Friends are also funding a further project to enhance catalogue descriptions to the records of the Court of Arches.

Further blog posts included information on the archive of Parish and People relating to movements for change in the 20th-century Church. The archive of the Council on Foreign Relations featured in the Church Times. The Library was used for filming for David Starkey’s ‘Reformation: Europe’s Holy War’. The Church of South India marked its 70th anniversary; the Library holds records relating to its inception in 1947. Events of interest to Library users include the Reformation London symposium and an exhibition at Fulham Palace, former home of the Bishops of London. Other useful resources, complementing sources in the Library relating to the Great War, include a digitised index of army chaplains from 1914-18 at the Museum of Army Chaplaincy.

Uncovering the history of books in the Sion College collection

The Sion College Library collection is more discoverable than ever before as we have continued to add records to our online catalogue. Along the way we are gaining some fascinating insights into the histories of some of the books in the collection. Interesting discoveries of monastic books have recently been made, including an edition of Giuseppe Simone Assemani’s (1687-1768) Kalendaria ecclesiae universae (A82.0/AS7), which was printed in Rome in 1755. Originally intended as a twelve-volume set, only six volumes were produced which were translated from Latin into Greek. The text examines the Church calendar and Slavic Christian Saints, but the provenance of this copy is particularly intriguing. Woodcut armorial bookplates appear on the endpapers of each volume along with a red armorial ink stamp on the half-title pages, evidence that the book once belonged to Kloster Muri (“Monasterii Murensis”), a Benedictine Cloister located near Muri in Aargau, Switzerland, that was abolished in 1841. From here it appears to have travelled to the nearby Aargauische Kantonsbibliothek (indicated by the red stamp), eventually forming part of Sion College’s holdings.

Provenance of a more domestic nature appears in a collection of Lent-sermons, Quadriga salutis. Two early 18^th century inscriptions were left by William Baker marking the birth of two of his children, who were named after their parents, Mary and William. It is not uncommon for significant family events to be found recorded in this way within a family Bible or on the flyleaves of another treasured book. They provide a useful document through which we can build an intimate picture of different households, charting their expansion and their unfortunate contraction following the passing of relatives. In this instance they also give us a charming insight into the possible accents and pronunciations used by the individuals, some of the text here being written out phonetically:

“Mary Douglas of William and his wife, bourn ys th. 12th dey of Jan:ry helf anower before 12 of ye clock mid time a day” (A67.3a/C24 08,).

“No[vem]b[e]r 15th 1717 Will son of Will Baker and Mary his wife was bourne at 3 of ye clock in ye morning” (A67.3a/C24 19).

Robert Beverley Jr. (ca. 1667-1722) was an historian of early colonial Virginia, as well as a planter and political figure. His most notable work is his History and Present State of Virginia, published originally in London in 1705, which documents the history of early life in the colony. This French translation held in the Sion collection was printed in Amsterdam in 1707 and is an unmatched source for the Virginia of its time with sections on Native Americans, politics, flora, fauna, and agriculture (B81.10/V81B). The book also has a noble provenance, containing the bookplate of Ludwig Rudolph (1671-1735), Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Prince of Wolfenbüttel.

Other significant owners are also coming to light as we explore the Sion collection. A recent exciting find was the armorial binding of the Royalist Sir Nicholas Crisp (1599?-1666), with his gilt stamped arms appearing on Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Diui Thomae Aquinatis doctoris angelici Opera omnia  (A51.2/Aq5).

The stamp was added to the Sion Provenance Project and we were subsequently contacted by the British Armorial Bindings Database, who informed us that is was as yet unrecorded. We are now contributing data relating to other stamps that have been identified, helping to update and extend the information already in the database.

Help us to uncover history on our Sion Provenance Project!

The Sion Provenance Project continues to grow with more material being added which you can peruse or you can offer us much appreciated help by having a go at deciphering inscriptions or identifying former owners of some of the Sion volumes. Perhaps over the Christmas period you might want to have a go?! We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions and we would be especially grateful if you could help us spread the word about the project and get more people involved!